A distinctly British informal adjective for someone who's irritable, tetchy, and ready to argue at the drop of a hat. A fratchy person wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and seems to stay there all day — they snap, they bicker, they find fault with everything. It's a perfectly descriptive word that somehow sounds exactly like the mood it describes. Often used affectionately or with exasperation when talking about a grumpy partner, tired child, or a colleague who hasn't had their coffee yet.
She was so fratchy all morning — turns out she hadn't slept properly all week.
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(UK, informal) Irritable or argumentative.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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